There are dozens of options of how to do that that haven’t yet been seriously discussed this cycle. Some potential revenue makers—such as increasing taxes on banks and hedge fund managers—are likely to be popular with many Democratic voters. But other proposals, such as introducing a carbon tax or eliminating a popular tax break for homeowners are likely to be less so, and could force a conversation in the party about what people might be willing to pay for a progressive agenda.

Here are a few of the possible ideas:

Tax Carried Interest

Revenue Projection: $15 billion

Democrats would like to get rid of a tax break on profits, known as carried interest, enjoyed by managers of hedge funds and private equity funds. Currently, those earnings are generally subject to the capital gains rates—23.8 percent—rather than income, which tops out at 37 percent.

Pros: Democrats nearly universally agree that private equity and hedge fund managers should pay higher rates on their profits. Even President Donald Trump has complained about the breaks they get.Cons: The industry is likely to lobby heavily against changing this popular tax break. The $15 billion it would raise would not give Democrats a big advantage to fund their programs.

Increase the Gas Tax and Peg It to Inflation

Revenue Projection: $170 billion

The 18.4 cents-per-gallon gas tax hasn’t been raised since 1993, so lawmakers are debating increasing the tax—perhaps to 28.4 cents per gallon—and indexing it to inflation.

Pros: The gas tax increase has business-community support and could be used to pay for infrastructure improvement spending, which has wide bipartisan support, even if the gas tax itself does not.Cons: The tax increase would hit low and middle earners, which could be politically dicey for Democrats to explain on the 2020 campaign trail. Strong opposition from anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist would dampen GOP support.

Charge Fees to Big Banks:

Revenue Projection: $61 billion

President Obama first introduced an idea to place a flat fee on banks with at least $50 million in assets. Senator Kamala Harris, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, has also generally expressed support for the idea.

Pros: The idea is popular with the progressive arm of the Democratic Party eager to tax Wall Street.Cons: Critics say the plan won’t fix underlying problems with risk-taking and leverage at banks.

Raise the Social Security Payroll Tax Cap to $250,000

Revenue Projection: $807 Billion

Social Security taxes are only collected up to $132,900 in income. Raising the cap would effectively increase taxes on mid-to-high earners.

Pros: This would direct more taxes to Social Security, a popular program facing funding issues. It would also fit into Democrats’ campaign plan to tax higher earners to pay for their proposed new programs.Cons: The tax would hit some earners considered middle class in more expensive areas.

Increase the Capital Gains Rate

Revenue Projection: $608 billion

Some Democrats have suggested increasing the tax on sales of capital assets—property, stocks, bonds—from 20 percent to 30 percent.

Pros: This tax would be targeted toward the rich because wealthier people derive much more of their income from capital gains, rather than wages.Cons: Critics say this would deter people from making investments.

Eliminate the Mortgage Interest Deduction

Revenue Projection: $972 billion

This would eliminate an itemized deduction for homeowners on the interest they pay on their home mortgages up to $750,000.

Pros: The tax break mainly helps high-income individuals who both itemize and can afford to buy a home.Cons: The move would be seen as removing a tax break for those aspiring to the American Dream, as well as face opposition from the housing and mortgage industries.

Introduce a Carbon Tax

Revenue Projection: $1 trillion

This would introduce a new $25 per-metric-ton tax on most emissions of greenhouse gases, such as those from oil and coal. The tax would be levied on products that create emissions.

Pros: The idea could curb carbon emissions, potentially slow climate change and has bipartisan support with prominent aides to former Republican administrations supporting the idea.Cons: The tax would hit all households but would hit lower-income taxpayers harder than higher earners, because it would function like a sales tax on goods.

Repeal the Pass-Through Business Deduction

Revenue Projection: $414 billion

This would repeal the 20 percent deduction for partnerships, limited liability companies and S corporations introduced in the 2017 Republican overhaul.

Pros: The deduction has increased complexity for small businesses to file.Cons: Without the deduction, corporate entities would have an advantage over pass-through businesses, and would pay a much lower tax rate—21 percent—than the 37 percent top rate other business types would pay.

Introduce a Value-Added Tax

Revenue Projection: $6.176 trillion

A 5 percent consumption tax at each step of the production process would raise significant revenue.

Pros: It creates a new, large-scale revenue stream and would make the U.S. tax system similar to those in European countries.Cons: The tax is regressive, meaning it hits lower-income people harder than people who can afford higher consumer prices. It’s also a political nonstarter for Republicans, meaning it would be unlikely to pass unless Democrats won the White House and both houses of Congress.

Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.

The Goals of Communism

(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.